Dungeons & Delvers 2nd: Swapping Spellcaster Ability Scores

When it comes to spellcasters and the ability scores that influence how their magic works, Dungeons & Delvers followed the same conventions as Dungeons & Dragons largely because it worked well enough, and at the time I was focused on numerous other improvements, including-but-not-limited to making magic make (more) sense.

This led to a myriad of innovations, such as the cleric's Favor and the wizard's Willpower. The former is safe and predictable, and various cleric Talents can bestow effects that depend on how much Favor you have left (ie, Fire Domain grants fire resistance if you have at least 1 Favor). This represents your god having your back, and when you run out of Favor you're on your own for a while.

The latter is largely burned in highly randomized Drain amounts, such as 1d4, 2d4+2, or even 5d4. This makes it unpredictable, and since excess Drain is paid for in hit points it's also dangerous: push yourself too far, and your wizard can fall unconscious or even die. It's further differentiated from clerics in that you get small chunks of Willpower back through resting, and you can even reduce your Willpower maximum to Sustain some spells and effects.

For Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition we're taking things a step further by changing which ability scores affect the magic and magic-equivalents of most of the classes:

• Bardic magic is effectively unlimited. You start singing and make a Perform check: if it is high enough, something happens. If you roll really well you can achieve more. If you fail, try again next turn. Perform checks are re-rolled every round, meaning that bard Songs aren't entirely reliable. Finally, if using an instrument the Perform is Dexterity-based, while singing will be Charisma-based. Since instruments require both hands, you also add your Song Bonus to Perform checks and some Songs have added effects.
• Clerics are getting changed to Charisma, as that makes more sense for someone petitioning his god for aid. I can also see it helping if a god just generally likes you more. Otherwise, the Favor mechanic remains the same, though we'll probably have scaling effects so that the more Favor you have banked, the more some Talents benefit you (this is based on playtesting the nomad, which has scaling benefits for Reserve Power Points).
• This means druids will also probably rely on Charisma.
• Since ki is more about physical health, monks will be Constitution-based. The class won't be in the new book, but instead in the asian/oriential book since it makes more sense.
• Psions remain Intelligence-based, while some variants like battleminds are Constitution-based.
• Shamans remain Charisma-based, as their magic is based around garnering Boons from spirits.
• Sorcerers are getting renamed to sangards, and since a sorcerer's magic is in his blood, Mana will be keyed off of Constitution. Might make save DCs based on something else though.
• Probably ditching warlocks entirely, but using that class's abilities as a basis for temporary spells and abilities being granted by demons and the like. This is how we wanted to handle alignment as well, anyway.
• Since a wizard is all about enforcing his will upon reality, and his spellcasting resource is called Willpower, it will be based on Wisdom, with Intelligence being used to determine how quickly and easily he can research and master new spells.